The Fallen Interlude
by Canadino
Summary: And when she was not the queen and didn't have her love, what else did she have left?


**Disclaimer: If Shaman King were mine, I wouldn't need to write fanfics. If any of these songs were mine, I wouldn't be writing fanfics.**

Background music: The Fallen Interlude – Blink 182

**Minimal fluff 09!**

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The Fallen Interlude

She had never considered what else she was there for. She had only one purpose, the dream that had taken her from the clutches of darkness and shadow and into the wonderful, saving light. It was something she strived for, what she existed solely for.

She was Anna Kyoyama, girl shaman, powerful itako, future wife of Yoh Asakura, shaman king.

It was her reason for surviving. When she had been abandoned and was about to wander off to her death, the Asakuras had rescued her, taught her, gave her a place to exist. She was given a name and an objective: be the fiancée of the head of the family. He would become the Shaman King and she would be his queen.

She had not argued. There was nothing to argue against. Until then, she would lock herself up so the oni couldn't come back and surrounded herself with her lovely dolls, who couldn't say cruel things or give her mean looks. They stared blankly back at her and stayed silent as she watched them from the futon. This was the life of the shaman queen.

Yoh had come down from his pedestal that his family set him upon and held her hand. The role transformed like a dead caterpillar and she was not just the itako, but _the_ future wife of the shaman queen.

Her mind was narrow; she could only see the bright future ahead.

The villain was Hao Asakura, Yoh's twin brother; but this was not going to dampen her spirits.

Yoh would leave to a distant island and stare death in the face; but if he couldn't survive, he was not worth the role of Shaman King.

(She secretly wondered what would happen to her if he died.)

He made friends of all sorts: annoying snowboarding brats; arrogant, pompous bastards; effeminate, uncertain Londoners; horrible comedians…but this meant nothing. She had eyes for Yoh, and would not be discouraged by the other nuisances in the picture.

Yoh did not become Shaman King. Therefore, Anna did not becoming Shaman Queen. Because she would only become Queen if Yoh was King. She would not abandon him on the chessboard to join the other side.

It was not enough to bring her away. If one tie had been severed, she still had her love.

Now she did not even have that love.

Not if she looked into his room and saw another person in his arms. Not if she was the 'other girl' or there was 'the other guy'. She did not breathe, did not blink as she stared through the crack of the door. She would not speak. She had been silent before and she could do silent all by herself.

She was not the Shaman Queen.

She was not Yoh's only love.

What did she have left? Surely not the itako; she had the skills, but without the purpose, she was just another vessel. Surely not the girl shaman; there were so many others out there. There was Tamao, who pined and worked hard, could cook and clean and sing like an angel. No – Tamao had a life ahead of her.

Anna…had nothing. She had skills that were laid to waste and a heart that found itself on the road to nothing.

Her entire life and being had been flung from the road into an endless abyss. She walked from the room, down the hall soundlessly as if she floated on the floorboards, staring ahead until she almost saw darkness again.

Her hands found the beads around her neck and she pulled at them, _hard_, until the string snapped and the beads scattered on the floor, clattering and rolling away into the shadows like dreams, falling and hitting the hard surface like reality, who had shocked her into the realization she had ignored since birth.

_I have come with nothing._

_I will leave with nothing._

She had never seen a world without Yoh, without the promise of new life and the happiness that came surely from the life within her. She was fearless, but today she felt the presence of the demon she had never left behind.

_I don't know what to do and I don't know where to go._

She didn't cry. She would never cry. Not even when the choirs came for her. Not when Yoh could come to her later and ask what was wrong. Not when she would pass the other one in the halls of Flame Inn. Not when she fell down and scraped her knees.

She was Anna Kyoyama. What else did she have?

Owari

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Note: No words can describe the thankfulness and love I have for all you readers who still read my Shaman King stuff. The first fandom I write for and people still read. I'm afraid I cannot reward you justly, but with this badly, quickly written oneshot. The image of the itako beads breaking came to me and I had to write. This is AU, since we know this doesn't happen. The unnamed one will stay that way (but if you know me, you know.). Please review!


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